CRE chief gives his backing to criticisms of Muslim schools

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, gave his backing last night to the chief schools inspector's controversial view that the growth of Muslim schools threatens "the coherence" of British society.

He said he agreed with David Bell that faith schools should be doing more to encourage diversity by promoting tolerance of other cultures.

Giving the Learning and Skills Development Agency's annual new year lecture in London, he said: "We can choose ... whether we want to bring our diversity together in a single rainbow or whether we allow our differences to fester into separate cultures and separate communities."

Speaking the day after Mr Bell drew the accusation of "Islamophobia" from Muslim leaders, he urged further education colleges to do more to use their "unique position" to encourage integration.

And he urged industry not to overlook the beneficial effect education has on society, as well as its tangible successes, such as league tables and numbers achieving qualifications.

Mr Phillips said: "Education is probably the most important site of social and cultural integration we have.

"Within that the further education sector has a unique opportunity to bring people together and meet people who are not like them.

"That is, in my view, the sort of added 'public value' that the further education sector can provide.

Public value, in this case in education, is about more than just individual value such as exam results, it's about providing a benefit to Britain that is social, cultural and economic. These values should not be overlooked or underestimated."

Mr Phillips, who himself caused controversy last year by his definition of "multi-culturalism", said he was disappointed that many students from different ethnic and racial backgrounds who sat in the classroom together were segregated socially.

"This is best illustrated to me as I visit different parts of the country and hear from groups of young black, Asian and white people who tell me, with some puzzlement, that after they leave the classroom they hardly ever meet - they go to different clubs, in different parts of town.

"Yet they also say that they get on, especially when they meet in college, where they share the same aim to be skilled enough to compete in the world of work."